Chapter 13 (pages 209-238) Summary

In Room 203, the two men explain to Fred that the hemispheres in his brain are competing with each other. In a normal brain, the left hemisphere is dominant and the right hemisphere provides backup. In someone with Arctor's condition, the left hemisphere has become damaged and the right hemisphere is trying to take over primary function. The medical officers tell Fred that his brain may never recover.

The medical officers say that the hemispheres are similar to the hands, because a person's two hands are mirror images of each other. It is as if one-half of Arctor's brain perceives the world through a mirror. Fred thinks that he understands what St. Paul by the biblical phrase "through a mirror darkly." A mirror reflection does not show a person what he really looks like, because the image is backward. Fred...